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Years ago, a Rolling Stone critic quipped that the late John Entwistle, bassist for The Who and author of such classics as "Boris the Spider" and "The Quiet One," had the misfortune of being a good songwriter in a band with a great one (i.e., Pete Townshend).

I thought about that one-liner as I read about the amazing work done by major technology companies from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), work that nevertheless seems perennially fated to merely keeping the beat going while the public swoons to Apple's irresistible wail.

Amazon.com is one such member of the often taken for granted tech rhythm section. As reported in the New York Timesearlier this week, Amazon.com is spending a lot of time and effort providing a new generation of data-hungry start-ups with the kind of massive computing power and storage available only through cloud computing.

Image via CrunchBase

This is not always how cloud computing is talked about in the mainstream media, which is what made the Times story so worth reading. But stories like this are a reminder that many of the technologies that come to us initially as retail opportunities are also at work lowering barriers to entry into an ever-broadening number of markets, and making innovation available to a greater number of people around the world.

And if that's not enough to get you thinking positively Amazon.com and the road the company is paving for the next generation of technology companies, there's always the prospect of free kindles sooner or later.

Stockwise, shares of Amazon.com are testing all-time highs, and are understandably showing signs of waning momentum. But Amazon.com is among the stocks that are likely to do better rather than worse heading into the autumn months (as a retailer and as a technology company) and here, lateral motion seems more probable than a sharp-sell-off.

Based on Tuesday's finish, it would take a pullback of about 6% to put AMZN back in technically oversold territory. But Amazon.com has not provided traders with that kind of sale in more than a month. Because of this, traders determined to get a piece of a potential ride to as much as $300 in AMZN may have to settle for lesser pullbacks or risk paying up for the stock.

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I don't usually study copper, but when I do the effort is often well-rewarded.

Copper has long been one of the metrics used by intermarket-oriented traders and investors. Referred to as the metal with a "Ph.d in economics", copper historically helped anticipate the waning and waxing of the economic cycle.

Right now, copper is on the move higher after what looks like a successful test of the 2011 lows this summer. Sideways trading over the next few days could provide the metal with the kind of base that would allow for a push toward year-to-date highs.